Biggles in India (Vandersteen comic)/plot
Hong Kong Biggles is relaxing on leave at a beach in Hong Kong when Lin, a shoe shine boy, offers his services. He slips a note into Biggles' shoes, asking him to read it only when he is alone. The note comes from a Chinese woman but Lin doesn't know who she is. Biggles notices an Indian with a camera watching him. The note is from a wealthy merchant Fu Chong who needs to see him urgently about his younger brother Lao. Lao, a doctor, had married an Indian woman and settled in an Indian village where he had set up a hospital. For a while, Lao had kept in touch but then letters had stopped coming. More recently, an anonymous letter had arrived threatening Fu Chong not to try to contact his brother. Su Chong, Fu Chong's daughter and the one who had given Lin the note for Biggles at the beach, tells Biggles that her father would reward him handsomely if he would find Lao and bring him back to Hong Kong. Biggles is apologetic: as a policeman, he cannot act in a private matter. In the house opposite Fu Chong's, Ram, an Indian, is mounting surveillance. He reports Biggles' arrival to his partner, Jahan, who feels that as Fu Chong is ignoring their warnings. He needs to be taught a lesson. Soon, the body of Lin is tossed on Fu Chong's front door. Biggles and Su Chong discover Lin. He is still alive, but barely. Biggles rushes him to hospital where Lin comes to and tells Biggles what happened. He had been struck and grabbed by the Indian with the camera at the beach and then brought to the house opposite Fu Chong's. Biggles arranges for a police raid on the house. Ram and Jahan are surrounded but put up a resistance before trying to escape through an underground tunnel. Jahan is shot and killed but Ram succeeds in running away in a black Ford. Ram later comes back and kidnaps Su Chong from her father's house and leaves a note saying that if Fu Chong persisted in searching for Lao, his daughter would suffer the same fate as Jahan. Fu Chong's spies report seeing a black Ford near the harbour at Aberdeen so Biggles goes there to look for clues. A blind beggar tells him all the boatmen in the harbour had heard about the hunt for black Ford. One had been seen at an abandoned warehouse across the bay. The driver was an Indian. Biggles steals into the warehouse where he spots Su Chong being kept under guard by two men. He overpowers them and frees Su Chong and then arrests Ram as he arrives. Ram breaks down under questioning and tells the police that he is just an underling who had been told to threaten Fu Chong but he didn't know why. His boss was one Ramsjal, an Indian who had a room at the Astor Hotel. Biggles rushes there but, while outside the hotel, a taxi crashes into his car. Out comes an Indian woman, Namish, who is most apologetic. Biggles asks if she knows of her countryman Ramsjal, also a fellow guest at the Astor. Namish says yes, but she saw Ramsjal dining at the Miramar Hotel a moment ago. Biggles goes to the Miramar but the waiter tells him there had been no Indian there. Biggles has been tricked! The crash was just a ploy to give Ramsjal time to escape. The police at the airport and port are warned but Ramsjal and Namish have vanished without a trace. New Delhi to Benares The attack on Lin and Su Chong make the case a police matter and so Biggles gets approval to search for Lao. He arrives in New Delhi in a Cessna 175. After some days studying Kaipur, the region where Lao's village is, Biggles decides to fly to Agra and then make his way overland. At Palam Airport, he spots someone near his aircraft. The man explains that he is only delivering the lunch packet he ordered. Enroute, Biggles opens his lunch and discovers that, obviously, it is not lunch but a cobra! Gingerly he reaches for his pistol and shoots the snake. Thoroughly shaken, he believes that he can expect enemies in Agra and so diverts to Benares. Walking outside his hotel, Biggles is surprised to see a familiar woman! It's Namish and she is a dancer at a local restaurant. But before he can do anything else, a car comes crashing round and Biggles has to dive to pull a little girl away just before impact. Biggles seeks out Namish in the restaurant. She wants to avoid him at first but then the little girl is her daughter and she tells her Biggles was the one who saved her. Namish is grateful and agrees to talk. Ramsjal is her brother and lives on a houseboat on the Ganges. He worked for the Maharaja of Kaipur. Biggles finds the houseboat and sneaks onboard by night. He holds Ramsjal at gunpoint and demands to know about Lao and his wife Mumtaz. Ramsjal offers a little by way of explanation: the two had been bothersome to the local maharaja. The school and hospital which they had been running had made the ruler's subjects less submissive and too independent. But he doesn't have to say more: Biggles should have been careful where he stood. From a hatch above him, a rifle butt strikes and knocks him unconscious. Biggles is tied up but he manages to break a bottle and uses the shards to cut his bonds. He then dives into the river and makes good his escape amid gunfire from his captors. Kaipur The next day, Biggles leaves the hotel, evading surveillance by hiding in a bale of jute carried by a camel and makes his way to Kaipur. While walking through the jungle, he comes across a sleeping man about to be attacked by a snake. Seizing a stick, Biggles impales the snake just in time. The man awakes, profusely grateful. He explains that he is a sadhu--an itinernant holy man. The local maharaja did not welcome strangers in his lands, he tells Biggles. He knows about Lao and the good that he and his wife had been doing for the villagers. Lao had become seriously ill but for some unknown reason refuses to leave. After leaving the sadhu, Biggles arrives at Lao's village. He keeps his distance--the place seemed to be heavily patrolled by armed guards! After darkness falls, he creeps to the hospital building where he finds Mumtaz tending to the sick Lao. Like the sadhu forewarned, Mumtaz refuses to leave and tells Biggles to go away. Biggles knows she is holding back something but before they can talk any further, Ramsjal bursts in with some guards and capture Biggles. They praise Mumtaz for following their orders strictly and take Biggles to the Maharaja. The Maharaja feels safe enough to explain. He intends to employ the villagers as his serfs but Lao and his activites have opened their eyes and they had become less cooperative. He could not eliminate Lao without making him a matyr so he prefered to simply let him die through illness. Through a window, the Maharaja shows Biggles a hostage: Mumtaz's younger sister. She would be safe as long as Lao remained in the village. Biggles is locked in a cell and the situation appears hopeless but the second night, the door to his cell is opened and in comes the sadhu! He has knocked out the guard outside and tells Biggles to follow him. They are to rescue Mumtaz's sister and then Lao and his family would escape from the village on a raft which the villagers had prepared on the river. They free the girl but the alarm is raised. The sadhu tells him to climb the wall with the girl and head for the village. He would remain behind to give them covering fire. Biggles is surprised but the sadhu explains that he is actually a secret agent from the central government in New Delhi. India was a large country and had a hard fight against corruption and rebellion. Some troops were coming to deal with the maharaja and his private army but he feared they might come too late for Lao. The sadhu holds off the pursuing guards with accurate rifle fire. He is eventually hit but by then Biggles had almost reached the village with the girl. Mumtaz is happy to see her sister. She tells Biggles that the villagers had been forewarned by the sadhu. They had overpowered their armed guards and had then fled into the jungle. Lao is carried out on a stretcher and the party heads for the raft by the river. Biggles grabs the weapons of the guards to act as rear guard. The Maharaja's men arrive at the village and decide to set up a machine gun by the river bank to prevent the raft from going away. Biggles hurries to the villagers on the waiting raft to warn them about the new threat. He must knock out the machine gun first. The raft must leave as soon it falls silent. They are not to wait for him. Biggles then heads for the position of the gun, among some ruins. The machine gunners spot him and open fire. Biggles has only one grenade and he must use it well. A good toss and it lands in the gun emplacement, eliminating the threat with a mighty explosion. But the danger is not over. Biggles tries to escape but he is soon surrounded by guards who engage him in a fierce firefight. With the guards thus distracted, the raft moves swiftly to safety downstream. Soon Biggles is out of ammunition and hit in the shoulder. He collapses into unconsciousness. Biggles wakes up and finds himself in a hospital. The doctor explains that he is out of danger but he had been on the critical list for two weeks already. It seemed that the government troops summoned by the sadhu had arrived in time. The Maharaja and his guards had been arrested and the villagers had returned in great joy. Meanwhile letters from Lao bring news that he and Mumtaz had reached Hong Kong safely. He had recovered and would be returning to the village soon. Biggles himself was also recovering and a few days later, he was able to return to Hong Kong after receiving the congratulations of the Indian government. Back home he spends a period of convalescence as a guest of Fu Chong, Lao, Su Chong and Mumtaz. Category:Plot summaries